This week I was at Conventry High School with Ms. Thompson, it is her fourth year teaching at Coventry. She has to travels in between classes, across the hallway,so when class begins she is normally still organizing her materials for the class. She opens the class by checking the homework in her grade book, and quickly revewing it.
Ms. Thompson has two level 2 general science classes and two level 3classes. Level 2 is a lower level class and level 3 is consider a college prep level. She has mostly freshman with a few sophmores mixed in. Her Freshman are actually teamed so they travel to their core classes together. I didn't get to talk to my CT too much about the classes being teamed but, it was obvious that all the classes were very interactive together. It was difficult to get the classes on task right away but once she did the studnets stayed focused for the rest of the block. Coventry high school has a rotating block schedule of 90minutes with period 7 meeting everyday for 50 minutes.
This year the general science classes recieved new books to include, ecology, and more earth and space science into the course. So far the text is only being used as a reference, the outline of the class jumps around the textbook from chapter to chapter, so the book is not being followed in order.
My first visitation was great. I was introduced to all of the classes and they all seemed excited to have a student teacehr. ( Probably becasue they think I will be easier then their regular teacher.) On my first visit I bascially observed and watched the studnets to get a feel for their personalities and learning abilites. The classes are varied in size and right now they are very dependent on the CT for notes and making sure they have the right information. While I observed they took notes in a fill in the blank style outline that the studnets just filled in one word on each line as the teacher lectured. Also quizzes are open notebook, so the CT is hoping as the year progresses the students will become more independent notetakers, but right now she wants to make sure they get all the info correctly. The CT has a strong handle on the students abilities and what they need the students seem to respect her and all the classes ran very smoothly.
Ms. Thompson has two level 2 general science classes and two level 3classes. Level 2 is a lower level class and level 3 is consider a college prep level. She has mostly freshman with a few sophmores mixed in. Her Freshman are actually teamed so they travel to their core classes together. I didn't get to talk to my CT too much about the classes being teamed but, it was obvious that all the classes were very interactive together. It was difficult to get the classes on task right away but once she did the studnets stayed focused for the rest of the block. Coventry high school has a rotating block schedule of 90minutes with period 7 meeting everyday for 50 minutes.
This year the general science classes recieved new books to include, ecology, and more earth and space science into the course. So far the text is only being used as a reference, the outline of the class jumps around the textbook from chapter to chapter, so the book is not being followed in order.
My first visitation was great. I was introduced to all of the classes and they all seemed excited to have a student teacehr. ( Probably becasue they think I will be easier then their regular teacher.) On my first visit I bascially observed and watched the studnets to get a feel for their personalities and learning abilites. The classes are varied in size and right now they are very dependent on the CT for notes and making sure they have the right information. While I observed they took notes in a fill in the blank style outline that the studnets just filled in one word on each line as the teacher lectured. Also quizzes are open notebook, so the CT is hoping as the year progresses the students will become more independent notetakers, but right now she wants to make sure they get all the info correctly. The CT has a strong handle on the students abilities and what they need the students seem to respect her and all the classes ran very smoothly.